Does Social Media Cause Depression?

       Teens who spend more than three hours a day on social media are more likely to report high levels of behaviors that may be indicators of mental health problems compared to adolescents who do not use social media at all, according to a new study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. (Hoffman 2019)

     Social media is like a magnet with "magic power", which firmly grasps the mood and attention of many people. Warnings of some researchers alone are far from enough to erase their "magic power." It is precisely because of this that we will repeatedly see the magical realism spectacle of “warning the news of social media harm on social media to form a wave of communication”.

       From the perspective of business logic, it is normal for social media operators to focus on making users “addicted”. The social media that we are exposed to every day, although seemingly unremarkable, is the embodiment of the ingenuity of thousands of entrepreneurs, programmers and communication experts. As an Internet product, social media has been born to capture the attention of users since the first day of its appearance.

      When such a product has been upgraded to become the first gold-absorbing weapon on the Internet after more than ten years of upgrading, we should clearly understand that this product is bound to have extremely powerful combat power for users to "can't stop." Therefore, when we see that the average user, including ourselves, is hard to resist the temptation of social media, it is not necessary to be inexplicably stunned - this situation is simply normal.

      However, this situation is common but does not mean that it is reasonable, and does not mean that this situation should not be changed. Although the conclusions of individual studies may not be completely credible, from the overall trend, there have been too many studies pointing out that the excessive addiction of social media may cause harm to society. In this case, if everyone is accustomed to the status quo, it is likely to cause undesirable consequences in the future that we do not want to see.

      For this reason, it is not enough to rely solely on the consciousness of ordinary users. Professionals with a deep understanding of this should also actively promote the community to pay serious attention to this issue, form a more powerful social public opinion, and create a social environment that can guide ordinary people to shift their social focus back to the real world. At the same time, operators of social media should also assume social responsibility and take the initiative to prevent users from "indulging." This will allow social media to return to its tool attributes and no longer be a source of mental health risks.